Friday, September 25, 2009

McKellen: Don't "...want to play Gandalf"

Sir Ian McKellen was presented with the Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain September 23rd. As part of that, the topic of him playing Gandalf again for The Hobbit films was raised. His response was rather suprising according to Rotten Tomatoes.

In fact it was McKellen who raised the wizard's name before we asked, rather controversially declaring to RT, "I don't want to play Gandalf again."

But before a million Rings fans cry out in terror at the thought of another thesp stepping into the role, McKellen was actually discussing the risk of typecasting the wake of a big success. "If you play a part that gets an awful lot of attention," he explained, "forever after you're being asked by directors to play the same part in their movie. But I played the best wizard, and I'm happy to revisit him, which I shall do in The Hobbit with Guillermo del Toro."

"Grey Gandalf is my favourite," he told us. "Peter Jackson's too, we always preferred Gandalf the Grey. Peter liked him because he got down and dirty. He slept in the hedgerows; he was closer to the earth and not quite so spiritual. He's also funnier -- he's got more variety to him. We thought there was more scope in that Gandalf."

One of the joys of playing the character for McKellen is his broad appeal. "He appeals to really young people. Gandalf has 8 and 9-year-old fans who've seen his films a great deal more than I have. Their faces when they meet the actor who plays Gandalf are wonderful to behold, so that's been special."

Having said that, it sounds like he is willing to reprise the role when asked.